Store-service ladder.



No. 706,l62. Patented Aug. 5, I902.

A.- A. COBUBN.

STORE SERVICE LADDER.

(Application fi led Spt. so, 1901.

Unrrnn STATES ATET IQFFICE.

AZRO A. COBURN, OF HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO COBURN TROLLEYTRACK MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF WILLIMANSETT, MAS- SACHUSETTS, ACORPORATION.

STORE-SERVICE LADDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 706,162, dated August5, 1902.

Application filed September 30, 1901. Serial No. 77,061. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, AZRO A. COBURN, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at Holyoke, in the county of Hampden and State ofMassachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements inStore-Service Ladders, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to ladders for storeservice and the like, and hasfor its object the improvement in this class of construction in whichthe lower end of the ladder travels on a track on the floor and theupper end on a bearing-rail, the particular improvement 1 5 forming thesubject of this application relating to the provision of, means forproviding a roller for hearing on the bearing-rail, which may movevertically to follow the vertical movement of the ladder, as the latterand the rail yieldmore or less under the weight of a person in mountingit, to the end that the pressure on said rail may act only against thelatter and not downwardly upon it. The rail is thus never subjected tothe full weight of the ladder and its load. 7

A further object of the invention is to provide means whereby the laddermay not be disengaged from the bearing-rail should a person thereon losehis balance and grasp the 0 ladder for support.

The invention consists in the construction now to be described, andparticularly pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings forming part of this appli- 5 cation, Figure 1 is aperspective view showing a. ladder in operative position and having myimproved devices applied thereto. Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectionalelevation of a portion of a ladder and the bearing-rail, show ing moreclearly the relation of my improvements to the latter.

Referring to the drawings, a indicates a ladder erected in the usualmanner before a line of shelving, which is indicated by b.

The lower end of the ladder runs on a track 0, or it may run in agroove. Across the front of the shelving there is supported a horizontalbearing-rail d in suitable brackets 6, attached to the upper part ofsaid shelving.

On each of the two vertical bars of the is supported a long roller 7t ona pin '6, which serves as a pivot therefor. Under normal conditions withno weight on the ladder this rollerwill bear against the rail (1 inabout the position shown in Fig. 2, and as the ladder is moved back andforth in front of the shelv- 6o ing by reason of this roller bearing onthe rail (1 there will be scarcely any resistance to said movements. Thelatter and the bearing-rail being of necessity of rather lightconstruction, whenever a person mounts the ladder to reach the highershelving there will be more or less yielding movement both in the ladderand the rail, which will result in a vertically-slidin g movementbetween the roller h and the rail d, and under such a load thebearing-point between the rollerand the rail would then be nearer to theupper end of the former. This vertically-sliding movement of the rolleron the rail o7. prevents the weight of the person on the ladder frombeing applied directly in a downward direction to the rail d, and theweight being applied therea'gainst only in the direction of the shelvingrequires but little to support it owing to the almost perpendicularposition of the ladder. It is thus possible to employ a muchlighterbearing-rail than would be the case if the connection of theladder therewith was one which was unyielding in a vertical plane.

With the ladder in the nearly-vertical po- 35 sition in which it isnecessary to set up these devices it is necessary to provide means forpreventing the disengagement of the ladder from the bearing-rail in casea person on the ladder should lose his balance and grasp the ladder forsupport, and to that end a hook j is secured to the upper one ofthe'projections g and without touching the bearing-rail is curved overand downward behind the latter in a manner to engage the rail should thetop of the ladder be drawn away from the front of the shelving; but thehook is so arranged that it will not interfere with the free movementsof the ladder along the rail. One of these hooks is secured to the upperone of -I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates, is

In a shelf-ladder for store-service, a track secured to the floor, aroll on the lower end of the ladder engaging said track, a railsupported in front of and out of contact with the shelves, and near theupper end of the ladder, combined with a roller-supporting bracket fixedon the rear side of the ladder, a hook on said bracket extending fromthe upper end thereof rearwardly and downwardly to a point below saidrail, a roller tapered from its center toward its ends, supportedbetween projections, as g, g, on said brackets, whereby the centralportion of said roller may bear on said rail.

AZRO A. COBURN.-

Witnesses:

H. A. CHAPIN, K. I. OLEMoNs.

